GILGIT-BALTISTAN (GB) is going to the polls next year. The announcement by the GB chief election commissioner was not only about general elections, it also notified the holding of the much-awaited local bodies elections. The region, with its unique civic challenges and marred by development issues, has been governed without local bodies for two decades. This has put enormous strain on successive elected governments as people — desperate for their daily civic needs such as electricity, water, sanitation, road repairs etc — look towards their elected representatives in the GB Assembly. As the region is governed primarily through the federal government, GB’s reliance upon the centre and the budget granted to it has increased over time. Although GB has a legislative assembly of its own, the key decisions rest with the centre and its powerful bureaucracy. This reliance is one of the reasons why the candidates and the voters in some cases look towards the ruling party in the centre before elections. This results in political defections in GB which have become a norm and are neither considered unethical nor immoral. While the defections generally occur before elections (as is currently happening) the outgoing government faced them within three years of coming into power. As the wind changed in the centre due to the no-confidence vote, the fate of the then-ruling PTI in GB was also sealed. The then-GB CM and PTI’s regional president Khalid Khursheed Khan was disqualified by the GB Chief Court on the basis of obtaining a fake degree. Consequently, political instability, wrangling and defections have cast a shadow over the outgoing government. The defections also do not matter much in the local context of GB. Voters in many constituencies, if not all, vote for the influential and prominent political figures who are well-known in the community and in a few cases, due to tribal affinity. Since the region desperately needs development, hence the ruling party in the centre is the best pick for these candidates. Before elections, the parties announce development schemes to tilt voters in their favour. The infrastructure of GB demands urgent attention. Due to difficult terrain, it deserves special focus which the successive governments have failed to deliver. The region’s key decisions rest with the centre and its powerful bureaucracy. Decades of neglect in the public health system have resulted in lack of health facilities, functioning laboratories, life-saving equipment, and availability of doctors across GB. People in many cases take patients to what they call ‘down country’ for treatment, putting an additional burden on their finances. Even the basic facilities such as electricity, clean water and sanitation remain rare in many areas. Despite all these challenges, including a limited budget, the push to create more districts in GB is strange. In some areas, with a population of less than 50,000, carving out a district puts an additional burden on the limited budget. GB now pays more in salaries and spends less on its development, which should be the other way around. A further burden on already meagre resources is tourism. While the recent boom in tourism and hordes of tourists arriving in GB has brought short-term benefits to the local population, the carbon footprint of these people and their vehicles has already started affecting the weather. GB is an ecologically fragile area. It cannot cater to mass tourism. GB needs a rational policy toward ecotourism and its implementation, benefitting local communities and the natural environment. Taking tourists to mountain tops in a five-door jeep is not wise, neither are concrete hotels and guesthouses without proper sewerage and garbage disposal systems. Unfortunately, this is what has been done to GB in the name of promoting tourism which is evidently changing the region’s fragile weather. The elephant is in the room now. In the last few years, flash floods have destroyed homes, bridges, hundreds of hectares of agricultural land and displaced population of several villages. This year, Ghizer, Ghanche, Skardu and other areas faced unprecedented floods that deprived many people of their livelihoods. The incoming government will have to confront these challenges and formulate effective and long-term policies to provide meaningful relief to the population. Not to forget, GB has a large educated, yet unemployed youth population which will likely place significant pressure on the government for effective governance. A glimpse of this has been witnessed in the past five years, when the region was embroiled in mass demonstrations and large sit-ins over one issue or the other. These protests were against the state’s attempt to end the wheat subsidy given to GB, and to impose tax. Sharp criticism was made of the GB Land Reforms Act of 2025 and against the arrests of leaders of the Awami Action Committee — vocal against certain government decisions — by civil society activists as well as political and religious circles. The longest sit-in of almost two months at the Sost dry port by GB traders and businessmen against the government’s effort to impose sales tax, advance income tax, and federal excise duty through FBR, resulted in the decision to exempt imports worth up to Rs4 billion from federal taxes if the goods are for local consumption. The protesters demanded representation in the national legislature as a precondition to impose tax. The federal government’s move reopened the old wound and regenerated the debate of the region’s constitutional status and parliamentary representation. Whether the incoming government will be able to resolve the chronic issue of GB’s representation is yet to be seen. While the future of GB remains uncertain, the formulation and implementation of effective and inclusive policies have the potential to mitigate the looming crises and place GB on a more stable and sustainable path. The writer is Assistant Professor and fellow of the Centre for Business and Economic Research at IBA, Karachi. X: @saj_ahmd Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2025